‘Casting Wars’ Augur Next Airwaves/Attention Battle

Tom Morgan, founder
and CEO of Net-
2TV, the developer
and operator of Portico
streaming video services,
sees an opportunity
for his company’s TV-like
content package via
a new array of wireless
broadband channels being packaged for Verizon
Wireless, AT&T Wireless and possibly
other mobile and wireline carriers.

Morgan also expects a “casting war” as
rival technologies battle to deliver wireless
video content through the final few yards
from wireless receivers, mainly tablets
and smartphones, to big flat-panel display
screens.

In Morgan’s vision, the handheld devices
will become “tuners,” pulling IP video
from LTE airwaves, then transmitting—or
“casting”—the shows to the big screen.
The casting confrontation will become a
smackdown between protocols such as
Google’s Chromecast, Apple’s Airplay and
the Miracast peer-to-peer wireless screen-casting
standard. It may take several years
for a marketplace leader to emerge, but
there’s no hurry since the surrounding infrastructure
(including spectrum availability)
will be a work in progress
for several years to come.

Net2TV, in Redwood Shores,
Calif., has an obvious stake in
this process, if the casting wars
rage on. Like other content
producers and aggregators, the
young company wants to make
sure that its content reaches
viewers’ preferred screens. Although
other technology developments,
such as the new
“1 Mainstream” software-as-a-service
(see below) would enable
multiple-format delivery,
the potential casting wars may
create unanticipated hurdles
for the creation of telco-run, end-to-end
wireless programming services. Such program
packages could compete with cable
as well as broadcast.

Net2TV’s Portico user interface screen

What follows is a speculative scenario,
stitched together from a variety of sources,
spurred by my conversation with Morgan
and other interested observers.

TV-LIKE PROGRAMMING
ENVIRONMENT
Portico’s aggressive drive to create a TV-like
programming environment is a good
example of the effort to develop over-the-top
streaming video channels of news, lifestyle
features and entertainment content;
maybe even sports, if anyone can get the
rights. Portico, which debuted in October,
is believed to be negotiating carriage deals
with wireless carriers as well as cable operators,
who are also seeking IP content for
their broadband packages.

Many other video content producers
and aggregators are also likely to be negotiating
with Verizon, AT&T and other carriers
which are escalating their plans to
create video channels to be transmitted via
the TV spectrum they hope to acquire at
FCC auctions.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam,
at last month’s UBS Global Media
and Communications Conference,
called wireless broadband channels
a “win-win” for all parties.
He acknowledged that Verizon
has had “lots of discussions” with
sports leagues, which, he said,
liked the idea of out-of-market
video delivery. (He acknowledged
that a major obstacle is distribution
rights currently held by other
TV networks.) McAdam did not reveal any
specific plans, but just knowing Verizon’s
intent to carry live sports via wireless networks
adds to the credibility of such services.

Tom Morgan

Collectively, these new assets contribute
to the growing expectation that Verizon,
which has frozen its landlocked FiOS
agenda, is now turning to the airwaves for
multichannel content delivery. AT&T’s purchase
of Qualcomm’s FloTV spectrum two
years ago similarly set the stage for national
delivery of IP video; overall, AT&T has been
less acquisitive, but it is also believed to be
stocking its arsenal to deliver wireless video.

Aiding and abetting this vision of home
TV delivery via licensed and unlicensed
wireless systems is technology such as
WiDi (Wireless Display), developed by Intel,
which enables viewers to stream or “cast”
video and other content from a desktop —
or in this scenario—a tablet or other portable
device to any HDTV, UHD or other big-screen
digital displays. WiDi supports HD
1080p video quality, 5.1 surround sound,
and low latency for interacting with applications
that are sent to the TV.

That’s a collection of capabilities that
fits wireless carriers’ visions for multiple
revenue sources as well as measurable interactivity
(including video-on-demand).
It also incorporates the home networking
plans of many technology providers, including
the casting wars combatants such
as Apple, Google and Intel.

‘AN ART, NOT AN ALGORITHM’
Net2TV’s Morgan, a 30-year “new media”
veteran, sees an immediate value in establishing
content niches that will be embedded
into the alternative video lineup before
the casting wars begin.

“Our objective is to build new channels,
longer-form content,” he said. He cites the
twice-daily newscast (typically about 10–
12 minutes long) that Portico offers, curated
from Associated Press video stories and
hosted by a Portico anchor team.

“We clip out the [AP] intros… add familiar
channel motion graphics,” Morgan said,
then insert a couple of commercial pods,
typically only two ads per break. With more
and longer shows on Net2TV’s agenda, he
said the goal is to provide a familiar TV experience
to viewers watching on-demand
Internet content, streamed via their tablets
or other devices, and sometimes then
“cast” onto their big-screen monitors.

Portico’s essential ingredient, Morgan
insists, is its human decision-making process,
contrasted with the automated curation
of many other content aggregators
and distributors.

“Television is an art, not an algorithm,”
he said. “We have a production system
that makes it easy for anyone to produce
shows.”

MORE TOOLS
Indeed, the effort to create TV-like
shows for Internet distribution is bubbling
up as a major factor in the next phase of IP
television. For example, last month 1 Mainstream
debuted as a “software-as-a-service”
platform that automates app creation and
streaming; it also manages ad serving and
billing for Internet TV devices.

The company, founded by former Apple,
Roku and Tivo executives, is using scalable
cloud technologies to provide native applications
on a variety of platforms and CDNs.
Its first customer is British Sky Broadcasting
and its initial line-up of supported devices
includes Apple TV, Google TV, Samsung
Smart TVs, Roku, Xbox, iPad, Kindle
Fire and Android tablets.

With this and other emerging tools,
the Internet TV wannabes have plenty of
resources to build and distribute the programming
that will be part of the casting
wars. The complicated interactions between
content suppliers, such as Portico—
and carriers, such as Verizon and AT&T—
will shape the competitive home media
landscape.

The casting wars—affecting the final
delivery leg—and the big providers who
want a stake in the wireless pipeline add
more complexity to the evolving competitive
landscape.

And that landscape is already perplexing
for viewers and for those who want to
control (or keep control) of the airwaves.

Gary Arlen is president of Arlen Communications
LLC, a research and consulting
firm. He can be reached at www.ArlenCom.com.